Migration after visa liberalization: What do the statistics show?

2024-01-02 16:09:37, Kosova & Bota CNA

Migration after visa liberalization: What do the statistics show?

Travelers at Pristina International Airport "Adem Jashari"

From January 1, Kosovars enjoy the right to travel without visas through the countries of the Schengen zone, consisting of 27 European countries.

This process also brought concerns about the impact that visa liberalization may have on youth migration.

According to the data of the Statistics Agency of Kosovo, during the year 2022, about 41,500 inhabitants left Kosovo. Employment was among the reasons cited for emigration.

The World Bank says that, according to forecasts, the labor market will continue to be affected by legal labor migration even after visa liberalization, as in the past.

Other countries of the Western Balkans went through the same phase. Serbia, Montenegro and North Macedonia gained the right to visa-free travel through Schengen in December 2009, while Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina a year later.

However, visa liberalization had no visible effect on the number of cases identified for illegal employment in European Union countries.

Visa-free travel should be mainly for tourist or family visits and not for employment purposes.

Although the number of identified cases of illegal employment did not increase consistently, several EU countries expressed complaints about such a thing, especially towards Albania and Serbia.

Meanwhile, for Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Montenegro, visa liberalization boosted more than tourist visits: more young people started studying in EU countries.

As citizens of these countries could travel without visas to EU countries, the number of cases of illegal border crossings decreased. However, at the same time, the number of cases of visitors exceeding the permitted duration of stay in the Schengen zone - up to 90 days within six months - increased.

Such illegal stay began to increase the most in the period from 2012. Again, the largest number of identified cases came from Albania and Serbia.

Albania and Serbia were the two countries that had the most cases of their nationals being caught using fake documents to enter the Schengen area.

Problems such as: the use of false documents, exceeding the duration allowed for a visit, etc., led to an increase in the number of citizens of the Western Balkans who were subjected to mandatory return procedures. Again, the largest number of them were from Albania.

In 2019, the Netherlands asked to suspend visa liberalization for Albania, but the European Commission estimated that there are no conditions to undertake such a measure.

Two years later, the then Slovenian Presidency of the EU prepared a document, where numerous examples of misuse of visa-free travel from Albania, Serbia and North Macedonia were mentioned.

For the countries of the Western Balkans, the European Commission published five monitoring reports of the visa liberalization regime. The last one, published on December 5, 2022, estimated that all countries have taken measures to meet EU requirements and that those countries continue to meet the criteria for visa liberalization.

The conditions for visa liberalization include reforms to strengthen the rule of law, fight organized crime and corruption, manage migration and improve administrative capacities in border control.

In the event of an increase in illegal migration from any country, the EU has the right to temporarily suspend the visa-free travel regime.

This mechanism, which was initiated in 2013, is activated if there is an increase of more than 50 percent in illegal entries from a country and illegal stay, if there is an increase of more than 50 percent in asylum applications, if there is a decrease in cooperation for the return of mandatory and if it is estimated that there is an increased risk for the security of EU member states./ REL